How did Neuro-Linguistic Programming become an indoctrination tool for one of the most notorious sex cults of the 21st century? Co-founder Nancy Salzman reveals how she brought NLP to NXIVM, and how leader Keith Raniere—now serving a 120-year sentence for sex trafficking and other crimes—turned the methods against her. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
The Pickup Artist Playbook
03.03.2026 | 36 Min.
A new group of fans flocked to NLP in the 90s: pickup artists. At the center of the movement was Ross Jeffries, a hypnotist and purported expert in getting women into bed. Jeffries lets Zoë in on the secret to his success, as she and Alice grapple with the realization that maybe they, as journalists, have more in common with pickup artists than they’d like to admit. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Murder in Santa Cruz
24.02.2026 | 38 Min.
Three people walked into a room…only two came out alive. In 1986, Richard Bandler was charged with murdering a woman in his inner circle. We dig into the trial that nearly sank Neuro-Linguistic Programming, the unsolved mystery of what really happened that night, and how Bandler walked away acquitted while the technique he fathered only grew more infamous. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
A Human Technology
17.02.2026 | 26 Min.
In the 1980s, the U.S. Army was in a weird place. So weird, it was willing to hire Richard Bandler and Tony Robbins to try to turn ordinary soldiers into expert marksmen in just a few days with NLP. Zoë hits the shooting range with an NLP expert to see if she can become a sharpshooter. Plus, the little-known NLP backstory behind another psychological technique the military still actively uses: EMDR. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
The Self-Help Empire
10.02.2026 | 38 Min.
How do you turn mind games into hundreds of millions of dollars? We ask Tony Robbins, who discovered Neuro-Linguistic Programming, adapted its techniques, and built an empire of infomercials and firewalking, all while spawning a self-optimization craze he’s ambivalent about today. Meanwhile, Alice tests NLP on Zoë’s mom to see if they can use Bandler’s techniques to conquer an unusual fear. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What if you could hypnotize yourself into a better you? Or…. secretly hypnotize others into giving you anything you want?
That’s the promise of NLP, which emerged in 1970s California and then took over self-help… in spite of its connection to a gruesome unsolved murder in the late 1980s .
NLP is the secret sauce connecting life coach Tony Robbins, Wolf of Wall Street Jordan Belfort, pick-up artist Ross Jeffries, as well as NXIVM, the most infamous sex cult of the 21st century.
Journalists and best friends Zoë Lescaze and Alice Hines investigate the controversies behind NLP, put the techniques to the test on themselves, and ask the ultimate question: is mind control real?
Mind Games tells the story of NLP and its crazy cast of disciples, including the fake doctor who invented it at a New Age commune, took it to Fortune 500 boardrooms, and whose gruesome murder trial did little to stop its rise. The biggest mind game of all? NLP may actually work.
Österreich